Worldwide AR markets are poised to achieve significant growth with the use of smartphone apps and headsets or glasses that are platforms to project digital information as images onto a game image or a work situation.

AR is in the early stages of an explosive growth cycle. The Pokemon Go phenomenon raid adoption raised awareness and expectation for the vision of augmented reality AR and digital enhancement of the surroundings. Digital enhancement as AR is just human explanation of our existing surroundings. Digital enhancement provides human explanations of the innate natural world and of the machines we use to perform work.

AR digital enhancement provides explanations and process predictions. Google pointed the way, as it so often does, to the AR opportunity with Google glass which failed, but spawned a large number of projects that have succeeded. All the AR vendors will reap the benefits of the Google original Google Glass huge AR marketing investment.
Augmented reality AR is set to become an indispensable part of people’s lives. AR is poised to take off as part of the much heralded Internet of things (IoT). Digital images become as much a part of the real world as the things we can touch and feel as they are integrated into everyday life. The reality is augmented by the digital images. Augmented reality is a misnomer to the extent that it implies that reality is somehow has something superimposed on it. Instead the reality exists, and the digital images blend in to enhance the experience of reality, make it more understandable or more interesting. The reality is not changed, it is not made better, it is understood better.
Use-cases for AR proliferate. Pokemon Go points the way to, illustrates, the huge game market opportunity looming on the ubiquitous smart phones.
Adoption of AR technology in the enterprise is growing. AR headsets and glasses are used in manufacturing, logistics, remote service, retail, medical, and education. One popular AR application is providing ‘see-what-I-see’ functionality, enabling off-site specialists to provide real-time guidance and expertise to troubleshoot an issue. Others superimpose process steps by step information on dials and switches in workflow situations.